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TRAIN THE FACILITATOR (LEAD TTF)

ECES organised a Leadership and Conflict Management Skills for electoral stakeholders (LEAD) Train The Facilitators (TTF) workshop. This is coming following the LEAD modular course trainings that was conducted for INEC Heads of Voter Education and Publicity from the 36 states of Nigeria and SIEC Chairmen from the 36 states of the federation under the umbrella of FOSIECON and most recently the LEAD for INEC staff from various directorates which upon evaluations received widespread acceptance and positive feedback from the participants. This is the first step in building a pool of trained and certified facilitators in the LEAD curriculum in Nigeria.

 

The overall objective of the seven-day LEAD TTF workshop which took place from 28 October - 4 November 2018, and being conducted within the context of the European Union Support to Democratic Governance in Nigeria (EU-SDGN) - Component One, was to look into ways in which electoral stakeholders: namely representatives of Electoral Management Bodies – EMBs, Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) and Forum of States Independent Electoral Commission (FOSIECON), Civil Society Organisations NGOs, political parties, bodies entrusted with electoral justice, academics, security forces, the media and media regulatory bodies can be equipped with expertise in facilitating Leadership and Conflict Management Skills for Electoral Stakeholders (LEAD) training sessions with an emphasis in preventing and/or mitigating the escalation of electoral violence and conflict throughout the respective electoral cycle as well as improve their leadership skills, thereby building the first pool of semi-accredited LEAD training facilitators in Nigeria.

 

The specific objectives were;

 

  • To provide a pool of LEAD certified facilitators in Nigeria. (They will be the very first batch of trainees from any English speaking country within the ECOWAS sub-region certified on the LEAD course);
  • To provide an in-depth understanding of the LEAD Curriculum and conflict prevention, management and mediation techniques from case study perspectives;
  • To equip representatives of INEC, FOSIECON, CSOs and key Electoral stakeholders with facilitation expertise in the LEAD course which focuses on enriching electoral stakeholders with decision-making and extensive insights into preventing and managing triggers of conflicts and conflict sensitive reporting throughout the electoral cycle;
  • To improve collaboration across the 5 components of the EU-SDGN programme, resulting in greater coordination and sustainable outcomes of the overall programme.

 

LEAD is a flexible learning tool that is customized according to the specific context and target group. It provides participants with the resources and skills needed to replicate the training and thus guaranteeing its sustainability.

 

The Leadership and Conflict Management for Electoral stakeholders (LEAD) training programme was initially developed through the close collaboration and synergy between the European Centre for Electoral Support and the Center for Creative Leadership (CCL). The LEAD training is used by ECES as part of its capacity building activities, and it aims at sustainability and ownership of results by the beneficiaries through a cascading certification process and an innovative training methodology.

 

It is expected that the training will strengthen the long term capacities of participants to effectively prevent and mitigate elections related conflicts and its triggers. Participants will be acquainted with applications of leadership tools within the electoral cycle and the skills to analyse and prepare strategies to develop and enhance dialogue in electoral processes. Given the competitive nature of elections, conflicts among stakeholders are bound to occur at various stages of the electoral cycle, which must be effectively managed. In managing these conflicts, there will also be need to resolve disputes among stakeholders through negotiation and mediation. Hence the importance to strengthen the electoral Administration leadership skills to create the conditions for efficiency, effectiveness and sustainability in their outcomes in areas of institutional capacity building which will in turn improved drastically on the level of integrity, and credibility of the electoral process in the face of distrust from others stakeholders and help minimize risks of degeneration.

 

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